Correcting False Balance

This week the UK Parliament released a report that recommended ways to improve communicating climate change to the public, criticizing the media in particular for promoting false balance. Bob talks with Bob Ward of the London School of Economics about the report and the chief offender.

Transcript

BOB GARFIELD: So maybe US media are finally resisting the reflex to give equal time to climate change skeptics but in Europe, where man's role in climate change has ‘til now been largely undisputed in the media, the reverse is happening. In fact, the false balance tic has gotten so bad in the United Kingdom that Parliament felt the need to address the problem. A parliamentary committee issued a scathing report titled, “Communicating Climate Science,” in which it laid out the chief offenders, the most egregious of which might surprise you.

Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics was cited in the Committee's work. Bob, welcome to the show.

BOB WARD: Hi.

BOB GARFIELD: The sensationalist Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were criticized, duh! But it was the BBC that really [LAUGHS] got a pasting. Tell me in what way.

BOB WARD: The BBC plays a very important role in public debates on all issues in the UK because it is the most respected media organization and has a, a public service responsibility. So the MPs, having looked at their coverage, found that whilst there were many examples of good coverage, there were too many examples of very poor coverage. In some programs, you found an almost pathological desire to balance say the contributions of climate scientists with so-called “skeptics” who reject the science.

BOB GARFIELD: The BBC declined to comment on our air but it has circulated a statement in which it cites its commitment to impartiality, saying, quote, “It is important that dissenting voices are also heard.”

BOB WARD: The BBC has got a responsibility to be impartial but it also has a statutory responsibility to ensure the accuracy of its output. It damages the public, not just because it gives a misleading impression of where the balance of expert opinion lies. The skeptics were often allowed to make demonstrably false statements, and too often it appears that the BBC sacrifices accuracy for the sake of an impartiality.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob, now I don’t want to brag –

[WARD LAUGHS]

- but I believe that the United States is way ahead of Europe on the politicization of climate change –

[WARD LAUGHING]

- you know, that, that there is some sort of real debate going on. Is the UK catching up?

BOB WARD: I’m afraid it is. The UK passed an act in 2008 with an overwhelming majority, and this Climate Change Act commits the UK to a statutory target for reducing its annual emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 percent by 2050 within a series five-year budgets. But since 2009-2010, when there were scandals around the hacking of some emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which were then spread on the internet with accusations that it showed that climate scientists had been engaged in manipulating their data or committing fraud.

BOB GARFIELD: This was the so-called “Climategate” episode.

BOB WARD: Yeah, that’s Climategate, and subsequently found to be complete nonsense, but it led to damaging headlines and extremely misleading media coverage, which we’ve never really recovered from. And we find in the UK that more than half of our national daily newspapers now pursue some sort of skeptic line. And public opinion surveys show that maybe 40 percent or so of the British public believe that there really is a significant level of disagreement between scientists about the role of man in climate change.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob, thank you so much.

BOB WARD: You’re welcome.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob Ward is the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.

BOB GARFIELD: So maybe US media are finally resisting the reflex to give equal time to climate change skeptics but in Europe, where man's role in climate change has ‘til now been largely undisputed in the media, the reverse is happening. In fact, the false balance tic has gotten so bad in the United Kingdom that Parliament felt the need to address the problem. A parliamentary committee issued a scathing report titled, “Communicating Climate Science,” in which it laid out the chief offenders, the most egregious of which might surprise you.

Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics was cited in the Committee's work. Bob, welcome to the show.

BOB WARD: Hi.

BOB GARFIELD: The sensationalist Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were criticized, duh! But it was the BBC that really [LAUGHS] got a pasting. Tell me in what way.

BOB WARD: The BBC plays a very important role in public debates on all issues in the UK because it is the most respected media organization and has a, a public service responsibility. So the MPs, having looked at their coverage, found that whilst there were many examples of good coverage, there were too many examples of very poor coverage. In some programs, you found an almost pathological desire to balance say the contributions of climate scientists with so-called “skeptics” who reject the science.

BOB GARFIELD: The BBC declined to comment on our air but it has circulated a statement in which it cites its commitment to impartiality, saying, quote, “It is important that dissenting voices are also heard.”

BOB WARD: The BBC has got a responsibility to be impartial but it also has a statutory responsibility to ensure the accuracy of its output. It damages the public, not just because it gives a misleading impression of where the balance of expert opinion lies. The skeptics were often allowed to make demonstrably false statements, and too often it appears that the BBC sacrifices accuracy for the sake of an impartiality.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob, now I don’t want to brag –

[WARD LAUGHS]

- but I believe that the United States is way ahead of Europe on the politicization of climate change –

[WARD LAUGHING]

- you know, that, that there is some sort of real debate going on. Is the UK catching up?

BOB WARD: I’m afraid it is. The UK passed an act in 2008 with an overwhelming majority, and this Climate Change Act commits the UK to a statutory target for reducing its annual emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 percent by 2050 within a series five-year budgets. But since 2009-2010, when there were scandals around the hacking of some emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which were then spread on the internet with accusations that it showed that climate scientists had been engaged in manipulating their data or committing fraud.

BOB GARFIELD: This was the so-called “Climategate” episode.

BOB WARD: Yeah, that’s Climategate, and subsequently found to be complete nonsense, but it led to damaging headlines and extremely misleading media coverage, which we’ve never really recovered from. And we find in the UK that more than half of our national daily newspapers now pursue some sort of skeptic line. And public opinion surveys show that maybe 40 percent or so of the British public believe that there really is a significant level of disagreement between scientists about the role of man in climate change.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob, thank you so much.

BOB WARD: You’re welcome.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob Ward is the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.

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